MIAMI — Andrea Guzman chucked the sit-down dinner for a cocktail reception. Marie Williams Barnes recruited a friend to design her wedding invitations. And Cindy Rodriguez won't be hosting her party at the hotel she first chose but at a less expensive clubhouse.

As the recession lingers, brides are trimming guest lists, crafting their own favors, slashing flower budgets and doing without the open bar. Sure, love blooms in hard times, but nuptials are less lavish.

"Since last year we've seen more and more girls cutting back or preparing more of their own things for their weddings," says Monica Vega of Sapore Group, a wedding and events planner in Miami. "They're looking at their budget and thinking that's money that can go for their mortgage or used to buy a house."

Tying the knot has never been cheap, but spending for The Big Day is falling. The average U.S. wedding cost about $21,800 in 2008, a drop of almost $7,000 from the year before, according to the market research company Wedding Report. Of course, spending varies widely, and a splurge in one community may be considered thriftiness in another.

For example: Outlays compiled by costofwedding.com have ranged from $10,609 to $17,848 so far this year in Hialeah, Fla., while in Key Biscayne, Fla., couples have spent as much as $99,695.

Even if a family can afford a six-figure wedding, over-the-top festivities are out of fashion.

"You can't be too lavish in these times," says Steve Levine, business manager for Jose Graterol Designs, which does high-end flower arrangements. "Even if the bride wants certain arrangements and has the money to spend, it can't LOOK over the top."

Bill Hansen of Bill Hansen Catering says business is down, the worst since he launched his business in 1980. While bookings remain strong, the average price per plate has dropped by about 20 percent. Couples are choosing chicken instead of beef and opting out of more expensive venues.

"Brides," he says, "are very much in the driver's seat."

Photographer Michael Murphy, who has run his own studio and gallery in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for 19 years, echoes the sentiment. As competition turned fierce, he dropped his prices by 20 percent in January and restructured his packages so couples can make an initial commitment and decide later whether to buy an album.

"I don't want money to be an issue and I wanted to be preemptive," Murphy says. "Couples are more budget-conscious these days."

They have to be; love offers no immunity from layoffs or salary cuts.

Just ask Cindy Rodriguez of Miami. Soon after Kenneth Reyes popped the question in February, he was laid off from his construction job. They had to drop their first reception choice, the Mayfair in Coconut Grove, Fla., for a less expensive venue in North Miami Beach. Though the wedding isn't until May 2010 and Reyes hopes to land a job well before then, the couple is trimming back on everything from the open bar to the party favors.

"Prices are a reality check," Rodriguez says. "But we want to stay within our means. We don't want to go into debt for a party."

As weddings are downsized, couples are forced to be more creative, a trend wedding planner Vega says can actually make things more fun. Brides no longer balk at the idea of searching pawn shops for wedding bands or buying a used wedding dress at a thrift store. In fact, while some wedding industry professionals lament slowing sales, Josie Daga, founder of preownedweddingdresses.com, reports traffic to her Web site is up 200 percent from last year.

"There's a new consciousness, an awareness, that there are other options," Daga says. "People are looking for different ways to save."

SETTING PRIORITIES

When wedding planner Vega first meets with a couple, she asks them to fashion a reasonable budget. She then has them rank their priorities. One couple may want a lavish meal but may be willing to skimp on the flowers. Another might choose fabulous photographs over an open bar.

The key is to keep an open mind. "You can have a very nice wedding on a strict budget," Vega says. "But you shouldn't go into debt for it."

Soon after Andrea Guzman began planning her December 2008 wedding, she realized her budget wouldn't allow for the 200-person guest list she and groom Hernando Vega had put together. The couple, as well as both sets of parents, were contributing to the cost.

So Guzman slashed the list to 80, scheduled the reception for a Saturday afternoon and made it a cocktail party instead of a dinner. She didn't hire a DJ either, but used a friend's sound system to hook up her iPod. She also trimmed back on the photographer, opting for a CD with photos but no album.

"It was either a big reception or the honeymoon," says Guzman, who went off to San Francisco and the Napa Valley with Vega. "And we really wanted the honeymoon."

Cost-conscious couples learn quickly what's important to them. When Marie Williams married Jeff Barnes last summer, they decided to splurge on a party at the Marriott Dadeland for about 100 guests. Everything else was open to negotiation.

"We looked around and decided whose talents we could use and who we could network with to get better deals," Barnes says.

Aside from recruiting a friend who is a graphic designer to print her invitations, she enlisted her creative chums' help for trinkets and seating charts. Always on the lookout for sales, she scored a few good ones — the flower girl's basket was on clearance at the Rag Shop, her shoes at DSW. She borrowed the ring pillow, the cake cutter and drink flutes and got "a great deal" for the limo through a friend.

WHAT'S IMPORTANT

"Together as a couple we decided what's important and we kept our focus on that," she says. "I think you have to pick one or two things that will really make it for you and let go of the rest."

That's what Mindy Edsall did for her Aug. 1 nuptials to David Rosenthal. The special-education teacher from Margate said she pared down her wish list by choosing buffet rather than sit-down meal service and simple candle centerpieces instead of flowers. She splurged on the photographer, however.

"That's the one thing both of us knew was important for us," she says. "In some areas it was OK to do without or with less."

Couples can still have a fairy-tale wedding even as they scale back, says Suzie Coelho, author of "Style Your Dream Wedding" ($49.99, Thomas Nelson). And she doesn't expect a return anytime soon to the lavish wedding receptions of years past, when families tried to outdo one another and often took out loans to finance what they couldn't afford.

"It's no longer cool to be showy," Coelho says. "People are reevaluating the way they live their lives and how they spend their money. Weddings are just an extension of that."